Okay, so Rivera combines the nature walk with the post-assignment debriefing. It’s the combo that counts. Anyway, I just hope they don’t trip over those deer decoys. Still, it’s too bad Mark ditched the hip shirt from Sunday for his wear-forever red plaid.

I also see that Mark and Cherry are sporting backpacks. What could they possibly need to carry with them on a simple nature walk, hmmm?

Editor’s Note: After reading this, please scroll down to read the post for last Sunday (February 12^th, 2023) that I wrote but forgot to post. Sorry about that!

Mark (again) misses the unintended hint from Bill Ellis about how to further his career while staying close to home. But I suppose keeping up with modern times has never been very important in Mark’s work ethic. He’s been getting slapped in the face by characters monetizing themselves on the Internet for a few years now. Still, no awareness in Mark. It’s as if he believes that he still exists in a comic strip universe drawn with a Winsor & Newton #7 sable brush and Higgins Black Magic India ink. Okay, so a lot of Trailheads would like that, too.

Contrary to some opinions, I don’t think going back to Teen Girl Sparkle is a great idea. As there are many magazines owned by one parent company that hires Mark, how about having Mark work for magazine #6 or #9, for example? I thought one of the interesting notions of this multi-magazine concept was that Mark would get a variety of assignments from a variety of chief editors and trying to fit his work into different magazine formats. Lots of opportunities for variety and drama in that concept.  Only, most assignments have come from Amy Lee at Teen Girl Sparkle, with one from  Rafael Suave of Hot Catch magazine (the zebra mussels affair).

I try to keep my snarky tendencies to a minimum, so I’m not going to go on a rant about how Bill Ellis always seems to look like some kind of puppet.  Still, why does Mark take this guff from Bill Ellis?

Maybe Mark should start marketing himself to a wider range of nature magazines (such as National Geographic) that don’t depend on a tabloid luridness scale to evaluate worthiness. On the other hand, while gator migration is an issue, it is not a new one; so Mark’s story idea will go nowhere, unless he takes a hint from Ellis and finds an interesting hook.

I have a few slants to gin up some excitement, should Mark be interested:

• Gators:  It’s what’s for dinner
• Another way global climate change can hurt your pets
• They’re coming to eat your children!
• Is alligator migration just a croc?

Bet you can come up with even better ideas.

As Mark sits at his All-in-One (I wonder if that’s a visual pun?), Bill Ellis delivers the bad news we pretty much expected. I’m surprised that Rivera didn’t draw Mark in panel 4 with a big fried egg on his face. That would have been great, and a welcome return to Rivera’s earlier, more creative panel designs.

To twist the Comeuppance Knife, for example, Bill could follow-up this letdown by proposing Mark assist Kelly Welly on her climate change assignment. That would be the proper sitcom solution that puts the dad/husband in his place and forces him to confront his arrogance. A soft-pedaled arrogance used to be a Mark Trail virtue, but Rivera has been body-slamming that punching bag ever since she started. It’s pretty beat up by now (cue Simon & Garfunkel), so I’m hoping for a more creative and empowering—to borrow a term—adventure to come out of this.

Well, on the plus side, Cherry is keeping busy, now that her gardening and landscape business seems to be in a slump after that she spilled the beans on that ugly Ernest-Violet love affair. Also, the artwork has remained at a consistently good level. So, I hope that Rivera moves quickly past this “hallmark” period.

As far as help around the house goes, what about Rusty and Doc? They’re around a lot more than Mark.

Anyway, if Rivera is going to emphasize their luvy-duvy ways, it might be even more interesting to see how it progresses. After all, Rivera did once show them both in bed down in Florida—exhausted and sweaty—in Mark’s very first adventure. Perhaps the syndicate came down on that. This is a family comic strip, right?

I wonder if the bald eagle might be saying “Enough, Mark! You’re not 10 years old!” But that’s not enough to stop Mark from blathering on, repeatedly, about something he wants but doesn’t yet have. This looks like an update to the old maxim, “Don’t count your chickens before they’re hatched.”

Meanwhile, Cherry must keep pretty busy, constantly landscaping the property; perhaps getting some cabin remodeling along the way, as well. Of course, we do have to keep scale and distance in mind. Anyway, here are some lookbacks over the past 2 ½ years:

The earliest shows a good-sized cabin with greenhouse in the back and prominent steps in the front. The middle example shows the greenhouse gone, with some kind of pavement sidewalk. The next example has no steps at all, and a dirt path-cum-driveway. Today’s representation has embedded flagstones. Yeah, I’m being pretty nerdy. So, what’s the point? I don’t know: Is Rivera making changes simply to suit the story? Does she just not worry about it? Or do I need another hobby?

Editor’s Note: Apologies for initially uploading yesterday’s strip. That’s what happens when you look at the original strip and forget to double-check what you are loading, yourself. I’ll blame it on my mind, distracted by an Italian conversation with a person in Italy that I was preparing for earlier today. Okay, on with the show:

Golly, gee! This is just like the “Mr. Wizard” show: “Mr. Wizard, so you are saying that if I hold my finger on a hot stove, I’ll burn my finger?” “That’s right, Kathy. We’ll do an experiment. Grab a snail from that terrarium and place in on that hot plate. Let’s watch what happens…”

I’m not sure about Duke’s assessment in panel 4. Seems to me that many people have been looking for a “ticket” to work from home and have done so. Only now, the pendulum is swinging the other way, and companies want them back. If Mark wants to work around home more often, perhaps he should quit his job of being the errant nature journalist and get a job at a local nature preserve. Otherwise, he can try and become a money-making Youtuber.

Frankly, I’m surprised Rivera has not made Mark think about this money-making possibility, especially after learning that some of his antagonists have been making dough that way. Anyway, I bet he gets his idea turned down; it sounds like that kind of setup.

Rivera’s style has been heavily criticized both for not upholding the traditional storybook style pioneered by Ed Dodd, and for its inconsistent quality. But it’s clear to me that she is taking more time in her compositions and execution. I think we’re seeing better quality and consistency, at least since the Texas roadside zoo massacre story ended back in December. And this a good direction to be moving in.

And as I (or we) suspected, gig-worker Mark took this boat trip to gather data for a story he will shop to his editor(s). His angle will likely be the effects of climate change, while hopefully excluding the erroneous notion of Arctic pack ice and rising water. Regular reader and commenter Downpuppy has provided knowledgeable comments on this point. But another reason for northern migration of alligators is loss of habitat due to human development.  

You know, if this was a pre-Rivera story, it would almost certainly center on illegal gator poaching. That’s still a significant problem and it would be great to see Rivera combine the two.

Okay, Mark. get what: Climate Change creates rapids (as in panel 4)? I don’t see an obvious connection. More water just makes deeper rivers. As far as I am aware, rapids are due to changes in the inclination of the riverbed, along with the narrowness of a river section and the state of the riverbed (i.e., rocky). More water could lead to rapids, I presume, if there was not enough water to begin with. Have to agree with Mark about the gator migrations.

Still, I’m surprised Duke didn’t push Mark into the river after going into “Professor Trail” mode. Too pedantic and patronizing. I know, because my wife feels the same way about me.

Of course, Duke gave Mark his opening, as if he was one of those kids that used to show up on the Mr. Wizard television shows of the 1950s. This passage should have been presented in a more conversational or story-telling manner, rather than as an abbreviated version of the Sunday lectures.

Coming out of left field!? I’m pretty sure we all saw that coming. This sounds like the beginning of Mark’s next adventure; or maybe just a concern he’ll bring up with Cherry while he waits for his next assignment. Don’t know what he could do about, anyway. Alligators moving north is already old news in Wikipedia, but maybe Mark could find an angle for an article that he could sell to one of the magazines.

I don’t know about you, but every time I see Duke, I think he must be a wanted man in hiding, because his beard looks like a paste-on job. It doesn’t seem to sit right; it looks more like wool or yarn to me; anything but beard hair. Well, maybe it’s just that Rivera has a funny way of depicting beards. Or is it something else? Here is the beard on Cherry’s brother, Dirk, the survivalist.  These beards remind me of those fake beards you see on the guys in the movie, “O Brother, Where Are Thou?”, hiding out from The Law after skipping out from a chain gang.

Maybe it’s just me. What are your thoughts?

[edited down] Okay, the cryptid hunt was all downriver, not up. I reckon that, living along a river, you’d be more inclined to want to know what’s coming toward you (i.e., from upriver), so you might be less knowledgeable about what’s going on downriver. That might explain Mark’s lack of awareness regarding the croc cove, but I’m being kind. Many rivers flow north-south (more or less), so “downriver” matches what we inherently consider “down”. Maybe that’s from our reliance on maps? However, there are many rivers around the world that actually flow south-north. So, “upriver” is then moving south.

The most striking example is the Nile River in Africa, which flows over 4200 miles from the Sudan and Ethiopia, emptying out into the Mediterranean Sea after passing through Egypt. Reinforcing how geography influences our thinking, in pharaonic times, “Upper Egypt” meant the south, and “Lower Egypt” the north.

Otherwise, today’s strip is just a traditional Mark Trail Nothingburger:  superficial filler stuffed between two adventures, with cheese.

Yes, looks like “Cryptid II: Foiled Again” is over and the kids are safely back home. I’m still waiting to read about the post-adventure lawsuits. Seems like Rivera wants to milk the “Exploding Boat” trope for all its worth. And as far as worth goes, I think she’s moved into the red. So, I hope she’ll move on and let that boat cliché float away on its own.

Panel 1 uses a flamboyant technique for linking dialog balloons to the speaker. The design, itself, is interesting, though I wondered if it was done purely for that reason. My thinking is that Rivera uses the close-up circle of Mark as a visual transition to the panel 2 flashback. That is, we have the scenic view of Mark and Duke in the boat, then the focus on Mark, then his flashback. And recall that Rivera often uses visual cues in her panels, such as this:

You have another take? Leave a comment!

Sometimes the passage of time seems glacial and sometimes it just jumps. Yesterday, Rusty was chilling out on the family sofa. Today Rusty is simply chilled while out on the family boat. Didn’t Mark and Cherry teach him anything about dressing for the weather? Sheesh!

Hey, there seems to be four people in the boat. Perhaps Cherry and Doc Davis came along for moral support.

I’m not sure if Rusty sees this little vignette in an historical light, but he certainly has a deer-in-the-headlights look as he realizes that his downtime is about to be sunk by Mark’s surprise attack of agreeing to take him on that long sought-for fishing trip that no longer seems important.

At the same time, in spite of the fact that Mark Trail (the strip and Dad) has been dragged into the 21^st century, Mark seems oblivious to the cynicism of contemporary youth, or that kids no longer accept empty promises. It’s the age-old story of a father being too busy to be around, and by the time he is, the family has grown up and grown past him. Still, we can hope for a better outcome.

Mark is nice and chipper on his walk. And why not? He’s done with his assignment and it’s a nice day. But does Mark have “people”? Doesn’t he mean “family”? He didn’t get elected the mayor of Lost Forest, did he?

Anyway, today’s strip is a very nicely drawn sequence, similar to Rivera’s earliest submissions. There are none of the usual attenuated, “Etch-a-Sketch” figures that we too often see. Rivera is also once again providing interesting backgrounds. I think if Rivera would maintain this style, much of the disparagement against the strip would fade away.

Okay, this reads like some pretty reasonable interactions between real people in real situations. Very good! And the artwork is consistently fine, as well. Panel 1 offers us a picturesque landscape, while panel 2 offers an interesting foreground/background composition that was last used when the Trails were visiting Happy Trail down in Florida.

But good grief! Just what is the focus of Cherry’s storyline? Is it the pet rash or another go-round with the ambiguous Sunny Soleil Society? Of course, Rivera could be expanding the story threads and we will have concurrent storylines with Mark, Cherry, and Doc. That will be a good challenge for us readers, too.

But hasn’t Mark seen the data on the damage that flip-flops can cause to feet? And are you planning to wear flip-flops around the lions, Mark? They do leave your feet terribly vulnerable and are just lousy to try and run in! You might want to keep using them as fly swatters and go with a pair of running shoes.

While we await the final decision by Cherry that decides what new story category to file this adventure under, I am taken by the interior of this part of the Trail house I do not think we’ve seen. Just how big is this house!? It seems to go on and on. Here we are in some kind of hallway filled with what is either a collection of badly hung pictures or possibly a bunch of gun ports to help defend the home against invading polluters.

Panel 4: Wow, not much gets by Cherry, does it? I mean, how many people explicitly know that elephant-caused injuries are not covered by their insurance? Without a special rider, that is. Just one more question, though: Is Mark wearing capris in panel 3 or some kind of fancy riding pants?

While Dumbo is hauling his tusks down to Waco (as on-site witness Downpuppy reported), Mark gets read-in on Ellis’s second assignment option . . . GOOD GAWD! New age animal healing?! Is Rivera deliberately trying to piss off even more Trailheads? I have to keep reminding myself that Rivera just likes to inject outrageous plot devices into the theater-of-the-absurd atmosphere that makes up this nouveau Mark Trail.

And Cherry’s expression looks a lot like my wife after I just told her that “Yes. I could do the dishes or I could retreat into my office and watch harpsichord videos on YouTube. What do you think, honey?”

We are hardly back from the disaster of Portland, when we are off to another adventure, this one featuring Cherry and her pop, Doc Davis. Well, we (that is to say, I) have been wondering when Rivera would get around to giving Doc more story time, and this might be that time. In vintage Mark Trail I believe Doc was retired, which suggests that this strip might represent a timeframe earlier than its previous incarnation. That would bolster the idea that Mark, himself, is still a less-than-internationally known nature journalist. I’m not sure what a whacky day is at a vet’s office, but let’s hope there is more to it than just craziness.

Rivera seems to have taken up the standard Mark Trail story tradition of ending an adventure by simply calling “CUT!” and, presto-change-o, we’re back in Lost Forest. I hope they got their romance satisfactorily concluded, since the batphone just rang, and they are hardly back from their vacation. Mark has not even had time to change. Oh, wait. He never changes clothes.

But this time, the call to action seems to be on Cherry’s phone, leaving Mark to once again ponder his relevance and lack of fame and fortune. And thanks for the patriotism reminder, Cherry, but Mark beat you to it in the Sunday strip.